Plastic wrap your furniture

JUST IN CASE YOUR FUCKING HEAD EXPLODES.


good god, I dont even know what to say. I know nothing about these guys but if the rest of their stuff is this amazing expect to be seeing them back here soon.

A reflection on a decade of Bright Eyes

On February 15th, Bright Eyes will release their final album.

The full impact of this just hit me. In going back through their discography I am re-realizing that they've been there ever since the day a pretty girl with a crush on me sent me a song by one of her favorite bands on Instant Messenger. It was 9th grade, the song was "Perfect Sonnet" from their Every Day and Every Night EP. I had never heard anything like it, I still haven't. I borrowed their newest album at the time "Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground" and I don't think it left my CD player for weeks.

In the years since then Bright Eyes has released 7 other albums, bring the total to up to ten since 1997. I wont even try to find a list of all the collaboration albums and EPs they've released since then. Their sound grew and changed, just like I did, and I watched Conor Oberst get older, and watched him channel all the sadness and anger in his early music into political activism and making the world a little bit better. I guess I find him inspiring.

In honor of everything that their music means, I wanted to post a single song from each of their full albums.



1998:Letting Off the Happiness
- The City Has Sex

I didn't get this album until after I had heard a couple of their early 2000's releases. Finding it and diving into it was an amazing look into their earlier stuff, when they were still recording songs in Oberst's basement. I love the early stuff because it's positively raw. His voice is a weapon on those early tracks. The first time I listened to this song was on a CD I had burned as I left the house one morning to take the bus to school. It was the only song I listened to that day.



2000: Fevers and Mirrors
- The Calender Hung Itself

This was one of the first songs by Bright Eyes I was introduced to. I must have listened to it, literally, hundreds of times. I was so blown away by the level of emotion. Its intense in a way that is rarely seen outside of much harder more punk and metal genres of music. I don't generally try to show these two albums to people because it seems to be very difficult for a lot of people to get past the sound of his voice. I never had that problem, I loved it from the first time I heard it.





2004: Digital Ash in a Digital Urn
- Arc of Time

This album was released almost simultaneously with I'm Wide Awake It's Morning. Where Wide Awake was more acoustic and in the realm of more traditional folk sounding music, Digital Ash used a lot of electronic instruments and machines. I sometimes wish I had gotten it before Wide Awake, because I feel like it actually might be a better album sometimes, despite the fact that I listen to it MUCH less. I changed my mind about what song to upload here a few times, but I settled on this one because I think it really shows the difference between the two albums, musically speaking. Also, I've always thought the middle verse about Jesus and Heaven and the dance that was choreographed at the dawn of time is positively brilliant. "No more whiskey slurs, no more blond haired girls, for your whole eternal life."



2004: I'm Wide Awake It's Morning
- Landlocked Blues

I adore this song for a few reasons. It's a very beautiful song, in both sound and lyrical content. It also has Emmy Lou Harris doing backup vocals and she has the voice of an angel. It is also from one of the few albums out there that I can listen to start to finish on repeat without ever changing the track. It was also a big change from his earlier music. He doesn't let loose vocally as often, which only adds emphasis to the moments he does. I always felt like he was beginning to really understand how to actually sing with his own voice. He half-way addresses it on the track Road To Joy, saying "I could have been a famous singer, if I had someone elses voice." Immediately afterward he starts screaming and everyone on stage loses their shit and starts breaking instruments.
I never got the impression that he was that upset about it.
Also, I know a lovely lady named Cara Alboucq who has a beautiful cover of it on her myspace. Click here to go listen to it While you're there, check the rest of her stuff out.



2007: Cassadaga
- Four Winds

I didn't know what to think when I first heard Cassadaga. It's different, very different, from his earlier music. I have come to really enjoy it, but the vast stylistic difference between it and their early work is something that I have a hard time not noticing. That said, it really is a wonderful piece of work. It feels very much like the logical progression forwards from I'm Wide Awake It's Morning. This song is fantastic, and also has a really cool black and white video if you feel like hopping over to Youtube.

and Finaly....


2002: Lifted or The Story Is in the Soil, Keep Your Ear to the Ground
- Let's Not Shit Ourselves (To Love and to be Loved)

You may notice that this is not in the middle of the list (where chronologically it should be). This is because this album stands out amongst everything else. This could very well be my favorite album of all time, at the very least it is in my top 3. The narrative of this song covers a variety of topics, all ones that deserve the attention it gives them. It's a wall of sound, an articulate story told with a very genuine feeling of desperation, and is one of the biggest musical triumphs I have ever had the pleasure of experiencing. It has brought me closer to people, and it has eased the pain of a growing distance between myself and others. I showed it to one of the most masculine men I know, and he said the part about hospital made him cry. Listening to this song, sitting here writing this, I feel like I'm visiting an old friend. If you listen to one song I've posted, I hope it's this one.

"But where was it when I first heard that sweet sound of humility
It came to my ears in the goddamn loveliest melody
How grateful I was then to be part of the mystery: To love and to be Loved
Lets just hope that is enough."


Through sunshine and rain, good times and bad, each album has found a little place in my heart. I'm sad that it will be their last one, but happy that they are going out with a bang rather than dying out 14 months after a release with a whimper. I don't imagine that many people will read this, and of those that do I would be surprised if they actually read the entire thing (good god so long winded what the hell am I doing). If you are someone that did though, thank you.

In closing, here is the first track from their new album.



Listen to the first 4 lines and go look at the pictures of their album covers I posted from top to bottom. What better a way to begin the last chapter than to look back at how you got there.

Nat asked me what I was going to title this post and I didnt have an answer.

WINE

This is the new year (and I dont feel any different)

I genuinely hope that 2011 isn't the year everyone gets sick of boy/girl duo bands that consist of a single instrument and a keyboard.

If it is, I don't know if I will be able to continue to live.

THIS...is Phantogram.

My buddy Sambo (check his ink and graffiti blog here) turned me on to them this holiday season and I cant get enough. Here's a couple tracks, peep game if you're interested.





You can download their album from mediafire.com HERE.

Enjoy, and good luck this new year.